Judee Dyke, Director of Birthright Orangeville, was present at St. Timothy’s parish hall just before the start of our February general meeting. She made a short presentation on the important work that their organization does for our community and she also thanked our council for our strong and continuous support. Our council has been financially supporting the local chapter since its’ inception. She presented our council with a plaque of appreciation for our ongoing commitment to Birthright Orangeville.

By Br. Rick RolfeThe Knight of Columbus has a coats for kids program where councils can buy boxes of kids coats for distribution. This plan however is focus on young children’s sizes. In Canada most young children have warm clothing or can easily obtain it from social services. Here it is the teens and young adults that struggle with obtaining the warm clothes they need.So our council started an annual Coats for Kids drive to ask parishioners to donate gently used outer wear for local youth.This year we collected 74 winter coats and numerous bags of warm tops, pull overs and sweaters.In addition we collected numerous mitts, scarves and winter head wear.We also collected winter boots.These items were distributed to Youth for Christ 'Door" drop in center, Choices Youth Shelter and the John Howard Society.As itemized below.Choices: 9 men's coats, 22 women's coats, 4 women's winter boots, 5 men's winter boots, scarves, hats, mitts, sweaters and warm tops.Youth for Christ 'Door': Sweaters five large bags, gloves one large bag, scarves one large bag, 4 women's winter boots four men's winter boots, bag of 13 women's coats, bag of 15 women's coats, warm tops.John Howard Society: 5 men’s coats, 10 women's coats, sweaters, tops, scarves, hats, mitts, box of children's mitts.Thanks to all who donated clothing, and thank to Br. Kyle Kellie for helping me deliver winter clothing to the John Howard Society.

By J. Rodrigues On March 4th members of council 8851 accompanied Br. Rob Rice, event chair, to Scotiabank for a cheque presentation ceremony. Members of the bank staff encouraged by staff member and parishioner Frieda Alameda participated in our annual Turkey Draw fund raiser. Scotiabank matches the net funds raised at the event up to a maximum of $5,000. This year we raised $2,994 which the bank kindly matched.

For those members who may not be familiar with Birthright, here is some information about the organization from their website.Birthright began in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1968, when Louise Summerhill, a busy housewife and mother of seven children, felt something should be done to help women facing unplanned pregnancies.

The grassroots response to her idea was overwhelming, and the Toronto chapter quickly grew into Birthright International, the world's first international crisis pregnancy service.

Birthright takes a non-moralistic, non-judgmental approach toward helping women through their pregnancy dilemmas. Louise regretted the fact that some young unmarried mothers were belittled or ostracized by their relatives: "I can never see anything wrong with any of them." At Birthright, Louise recreated the supportive homelike environment they deserved. Moreover, Louise helped formulate a Charter, followed by all Birthright chapters worldwide, to define Birthright's services, to ensure that pregnant women receive the same considerate treatment at every Birthright chapter, and to help volunteers preserve Birthright's good reputation in the future.

We in Orangeville can thank God that there is a local branch of this organization in our community. Our council has been a long time strong supporter, and this year is no different. Br. J.P. Gauthier, Dino Dottori, and WGK Tim Gant paid their office a visit in January to present our annual donation of $2,500 which was gratefully received!